Nokia has gotten an injunction against HTC in Germany over a patent on a power-saving feature in Qualcomm chips (?!). Nokia's response illustrates why the company started its recent patent offensive: "Nokia is pleased with this decision, which confirms the quality of Nokia's patent portfolio." If nobody buys your phones and your business is failing spectacularly, you have to promote something else of value to paint yourself as an interesting acquisition target. Patents it is, then. If you can't compete, litigate. Update: HTC's statement is pretty damning.

... the sooner the current patent system ends up in the bin. That's the only positive side of this situation; all the recent most prominent conflicts (especially from patent trolls) have brought more scrutiny to the system and a fair amount of silly patents being investigated and eventually dismissed. Personally I hope it goes on like this, the more they troll the sooner the problem fixes itself.